The
bouzouki is a Greek long-necked lute; the 19th-century version of it is
identical to the Turkish bouzouk. (At some point, it was the same
instrument as the saz, but the two then diverged; the Turkish saz evolved
into the Greek bouzouki, which in turn evolved into the smaller Greek baglama.)

The
cümbüs is a Turkish long-necked lute with a circular metal bowl
resonator covered with a screw-tensioned hide soundtable. It resembles
a banjo, only with a deeper bowl resonator and a wider unfretted neck;
its sound is deeper. It has six double courses (pairs) of metal
strings attached to metal machine tuning heads. It is tuned (and
played with a quill or a plectrum) like the ud.

It shares
a body with the much-older yayli
tambur (bowed tambur, which has a much longer saz-like neck), and
it has appeared only in the early part of this century through the invention
of Zeynel Abidin Cümbüs.

This instrument
is favored by street musicians.

Variants
include the tarbush (or saz cümbüs  a smaller instrument
with frets and six strings in three courses
which sounds like a tar) and the tenorbush.

Musicians
who use the cümbüs include:
Martin Simpson, Fahrettin Demircioglu, David Lindley, and Ry Cooder.

About
these photos: Taken April 19, 2002 at Park West (Chicago,
Illinois) of the cümbüs (top) and tarbush (bottom) Lu Edmonds
built.

Saz(Persian
and Turkish for "musical instrument")

The
saz is a long-necked Turkish lute with 10-19+ movable frets made of knotted
strings. It shares an ancestor with the bouzouki, and has many different
names ("saz" merely meaning "instrument"). The neck is usually made
of fir, and the teardrop-shaped resonator is usually made of a single
piece of mulberry wood. Small soundholes may appear in the thin
wooden soundboard, and openings may also be carved in the sides of the
body. Alternately, there may be no soundholes. Strings are
either steel or brass, and are plucked by a long cherry bark plectrum.
The deepest tuning is in the middle (e.g., d'-g-a; but there are numerous
possible tunings). The sounds created by the saz are metallic and
buzzing.

The
ud is a short-necked Arabic lute, a direct ancestor of the European lute,
and very likely a relative of Chinese instruments (e.g., the Chinese pipa
lute; in addition, the tenth-century four-course ud's dominant courses
were silk, and the figures/widths of the lower two courses correspond
with the two upper strings of the Chinese qin). Its name is derived
from al-oud, "the lute." It is used primarily in Somalia,
Djibouti, and Arabic regions; it is of secondary importance in Turkey,
Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. It is also used in Greece.

This instrument
consists of a large soundbox connected to a short neck. It has a
swollen, rounded body made of lightweight wood, and it has 16-21 ribs.
The soundboard has either one large soundhole or two or more ornately
carved ones. The belly is protected from potential scraping from
the plectrum by a raqma (made of fishskin or leather) between the bridge
and the soundhole. The twisted or spirally reinforced strings are
attached to tuning pegs.

The number
of strings on an ud may vary. Two-string and seven-course (paired
strings) uds are archaic. Other varieties include:

Four-course:
Moroccan; tuned bass to treble; has gut or silk strings

Five-course:
most popular kind of ud

Six-course:
consists of two-types:

Six-paired
strings

Five-paired
strings plus one extra low string (this type is common in Istanbul
and Baghdad)

The ud is
usually plucked with a plectrum made of an eagle's feather, shell, or
plastic held between the thumb and the index finger. However, the
Egyptian musician Ahmad al-Laythi (1816-1913) invented a different technique
called basm ("imprint"), in which touches from the fingers of the left
hand replace the plectrum. Other musicians such as Munir Bashir
use a modified version of basm  they use the basm technique with
their right hand, and produce harmonic pitches with their left.

Musicians
who use the ud include:
Richard Hagopian, Ahmad al-Laythi, and Munir Bashir.

About
this picture: Taken April 21, 2001 at the Double Door (Chicago,
Illinois) of Lu Edmonds and an electric ud.

Bagpipes

Versions
of bagpipes exist across Europe and India. While one of the Scottish
versions is probably the most well-known, there are also Spanish, French,
Italian, Bohemian, Hungarian, Greek, and Tunisian varieties.

In general,
a bagpipe is sounded by reeds to which wind is fed by arm pressure on
a flexible bag (traditionally sheep- or goatskin). This is kept
filled with air from the mouth or small bellows strapped to the waist
and to the other arm. Most bagpipes have at least two pipes:

chanter:
used to play melodies; has fingerholes

drone(s):
all other pipes  sustain single notes only

Links
to more information and instruction:Blows-A-Bellows,
Pt. 1 & Pt.
2Steve Winick's article on bagpipes of the world and contemporary
performers

I'm horrendously
uninformed about Norwegian instruments, and only know of one Norwegian
willow flute, called the seljefløyte. It has no fingerholes;
it is a single-harmonic flute played by rapidly covering and uncovering
the lower end by the finger or thumb to create a fast, near-diatonic melody.
It is like a willow whistle, but the blowing hole is in the side so that
it can be held sideways, bringing the lower end of the long flute within
arm's reach.

There is
also a flute called the tusselføyte, but I don't have information
on it at this time.

I am unfamiliar
with this instrument, but Kerry Yackoboski (who maintains the Friends
of Tuva pages) and Alan Leighton (who has translated Otto J. Mänchen-Helfen's
account of travels in Tuva, and who has a copy of Süzükei's
book on traditional Tuvan instruments) have suggested that a bass-pulur
may be a version of a Tuvan stringed instrument, the doshpulur (also called
a toshpulur or doshpuluur), with a lower range.

A doshpulur
(sometimes described as a Tuvan banjo) is a mid-range instrument.
It sounds twangy but is not as loud as a Western banjo. It has two
strings, and is "made primarily of wood but can have either a wood top
(like a guitar) or a gut or skin top (like a banjo)." The shape
of the resonator varies widely, but is often square or rectangular with
either rounded or squared edges.

While "kenggirge"
is the term for "drum" (used in Lamaist temple ceremonies) in Tuvan, the
term "tüngür" is used to refer to a shaman drum. Both
are approximately two feet in diameter. Drums used by Tuvan shamans frequently
have a skin on one side and a handle on the back; they are similiar to
sub-contrabass tambourines. They have small bells or jingles tied to their
handle.

Kerry Yackoboski
has indicated that "Tüngür" is the name of a shamanic clinic
in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva. He adds, "The phrase is that 'the shaman
rides his drum', like riding a horse or a bird. As he goes into his trance
(shamans are almost always men) his drum takes him soaring over the landscape
so that he can drive away or appease the troublesome spirits. They don't
play it in what I'd call a musical way - more like the occasional series
of strokes that coax the spirits into the drum so they can be carried
away."

A picture
of a tüngür can be found here,
as part of a series of travel narratives.

Musicians/musical
groups that employ the tüngür include:
Yat-Kha and Huun-Huur-Tu.

Sources:
Leighton, Alan. Email, 10 February 2000.

.
Email, 13 February 2000.

Yackoboski,
Kerry. Email, 28 May 1999.

Throat
Singing

There are
different styles of throat singing, and ethnic groups that have historically
practiced versions of it include the Tuvans, Mongolians, and Tibetans.
The throat singers from Tuva are probably the most widely known; they
are almost exclusively male, as women are strongly discouraged from it.
Tuvan throat singing is closely associated with horseback riding.
A frequent accompanying instrument is the igil, a two-stringed fiddle
with a trapezoidal soundbox and a carved horse's head.

Throat singers
may produce two notes simultaneously  a drone and a melody 
by changing the shape of their mouth cavity. They use their nose,
throat, chest, and abdomen as resonators.

Styles of
throat singing include:

kargyraa:
has an extremely low fundamental pitch; sounds like wheezing or croaking.